1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to structural braces for use in automobiles having unibody chassis. More particularly, the present invention relates to an efficient attachment apparatus for attaching a structural brace to the chassis of a motor vehicle to increase the chassis stiffening provided by the structural brace.
2. Disclosure Information
It is well known in the automotive chassis art to construct structural braces that triangulate the chassis structure to increase the strength of a chassis structure. Typical triangulating structural braces achieve their effectiveness by carrying uniaxial loading. Commonly, this is accomplished using a single removable fastener which effectively is nothing more than a pinned joint. It has been discovered, however, that if a structural brace can be designed to carry more than uniaxial loads for triangulating the strut towers of a unibody vehicle utilizing a strut type suspension, such as a MacPherson strut design, significant improvements in vehicle handling are realized.
It is therefore desirable to design an apparatus for attaching a structural brace to a strut tower of a unibody automotive vehicle that is capable of carrying torsional and bending loads in addition to uniaxial loads.